State Department must produce Hillary’s flight records

Yesterday, a federal judge in Washington, D.C. ordered the State Department to produce the flight logs and expense records of all of Hillary Clinton’s official trips. The order was issued in a case under the Freedom of Information Act brought by Citizens United, the conservative activist group. Judge Gladys Kessler, a liberal, issued the order.

According to David Bossie, counsel for Citizens United, the documents were requested in order to find out whether Clinton traveled with (1) any big political contributors to previous or future Clinton campaigns and/or (2) any Clinton Foundation financial supporters.

You would think that any Secretary of State would be smart enough not to engage in such an obvious abuse. But with Hillary Clinton, you don’t know. She has a history of disregard for the rules stemming from a sense of entitlement that borders on the imperial.

It’s sad that Citizens United had to go to court to obtain information to which it plainly is entitled. Apparently, the State Department is determined to run interference for its former Secretary, even if it means taking untenable legal positions.

It’s heartening, though, that a liberal judge ruled against State. Bossie sees the ruling as showing that “the State Department is not getting the benefit of the doubt from judges anymore.”

I hope he’s right because judges will soon be called upon to rule in suits involving FOIA requests pertaining to Hillary Clinton’s emails. This week, Judicial Watch filed six FOIA requests with the Department of State seeking information about Hillary Clinton’s and other State Department employees’ uses of secret email accounts to conduct government business.

These new requests are in addition to ones it filed last week that directly seek her emails. And Judicial Watch is not alone in trying to obtain such information.

Lawsuits based on Judicial Watch’s latest requests could follow in 20 days. Other FOIA suits are already pending.